City of Hastings will sever ties with embattled police officer

Hastings will sever ties with an embattled police officer in one year under an agreement that keeps him in a desk job until then.

Veteran officer Rene Doffing, whose past troubles include allegations of negligently hitting a suspect with his squad car and, more recently, of stealing a corkscrew from a Hastings restaurant, has agreed to stay in his current non-enforcement assignment with the police department until an early retirement set for Jan. 12, 2014.

Doffing, 49, has been on non-uniform paid administrative assignment since early January 2011, when allegations surfaced that he took the corkscrew from a bar area of a Green Mill restaurant. A jury acquitted him in July of a misdemeanor theft charge.

He did not return a call for comment Wednesday.

Doffing, who was hired as a Hastings patrol officer in 1994, will be able to draw his 20-year union pension upon the retirement date, Police Chief Paul Schnell said.

Doffing is in line to make an additional $8,118 this year in sick pay, under terms of the agreement. It was negotiated among the city, Doffing and his union, Law Enforcement Labor Services. It was approved this week by the city council.

Assuming he fully accrues sick pay and does not use any between now and his retirement, Doffing would receive the full sick leave balance payout of $16,236, instead of the usual 50 percent outlined in the union contract.

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Schnell said in a memo prepared for the city council that the agreement is partly a "business decision" that city officials have to weigh along with what otherwise could be legal expenses resulting from labor grievances filed by Doffing.

Doffing has been disciplined by the police department 10 times over his 19-year career, according to a Dec. 14 disciplinary letter to the officer, with penalties ranging from a letter of reprimand for an "anger outburst" in 2001 to a 30-day suspension for hitting the fleeing suspect in 2007.

Doffing was disciplined in his first year on the job, when he was suspended for five days for making threats to a juvenile.

Doffing was fired because of the car-ramming episode, but he took the case to arbitration and got his job back in 2009. A year later, Olmsted County prosecutors dropped felony charges against him in the incident.

In November 2011, Doffing was accused of taking the corkscrew while off duty and attending a police officers union meeting. That month, he was given a letter of reprimand by the city after admitting to sleeping on the job while waiting for squad cars to be worked on at Hastings Ford. The city was alerted after someone snapped a photo of him.

A month later, Doffing was charged in Dakota County District Court with misdemeanor failing to stop for a school bus stop-arm and passing a bus stop-arm with a child outside, a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. Doffing was on duty and driving his personal car on his way home for a lunch break, according to a Hastings police memo.

A settlement hearing is scheduled for February in the matter, Schnell said.

Last month, Doffing agreed to an 11-1/2-day unpaid work suspension for the theft allegation and four more days for the alleged stop-arm violation.

In the disciplinary letter to Doffing, Schnell called out the officer's judgment and said his conduct represented "a general lack of regard for your role as a police officer serving this city."